


Here With You

by May_Ravenstaff



Series: Moments in Transition [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Trans Character, Established Relationship, F/F, Family, Friendship, Lesbians, May is precious, Trans Female Character, deadnaming, there need to be more may fics, trans author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28710771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/May_Ravenstaff/pseuds/May_Ravenstaff
Summary: She really shouldn't have been surprised with those three, the lengths they were willing to go.
Relationships: Robyn Hill/May Marigold
Series: Moments in Transition [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2105748
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34





	Here With You

“I swear, May, my mother didn’t mother me as much as you do,” Fiona whined.

She smirked. “Eat your vegetables, Fiona.”

It was, in essence, a normal night for them.

Joanna reclined in her chair at their table, content to continue watching Fiona and May go back and forth over dinner. Robyn suppressed laughter as she ate. At times, it really did seem like they were the parents of Fiona (and May, though she would deny it).

“Noooo!” Fiona cried in mock drama, drawing the word out far beyond any capacity it had right to have.

May laughed. “C’mon, you know my cooking is good…ish.”

“Very good,” Joanna corrected.

“Joanna you eat anything,” Robyn snickered.

“That doesn’t make it not good,” she said.

“Tyranny!” proclaimed Fiona. “Oppression!”

“I don’t see Atlas anywhere on that plate.” May accepted the high five from Joanna without a second thought.

“They’d probably be high in fiber, all those sticks up their asses,” Joanna followed up.

“Wait, like, everyone has a stick up their ass or multiple sticks?”

“Yes,” Joanna said, to May.

May snorted. Dinner per usual.

Fiona’s ears twitched. “Mail’s here.”

“I got it,” May said. “Better not be an elaborate scheme to get out of my cooking.”

“She’s sticking her tongue out at you,” Joanna called, May’s back already turned. May flipped Fiona the bird with a laugh.

Their apartment left a lot to be desired, to put it bluntly. Though part of that was their fault. With running a candidate for office, cleaning up Grimm, having four people, things just sort of spiraled into chaos regularly.

The point was, May _really_ needed to vacuum.

Walking to their door to the hallway, May scooped up the small pile of mail that had slipped through the slot. Behind her she could hear Joanna telling some story. It was one she’d heard before. May chuckled remembering the ending.

She flipped to the second letter in the pile and her grin froze. A second later she snarled, her hands shaking.

The talking behind her stopped. Robyn called out, “May? Something wrong?”

 _Breathe,_ she chided herself. _Stay in control._

“It’s nothing,” she dismissed. “Just junk mail.”

She walked back into the main room to their stares. May didn’t look anyone in the eye as she went to the trash can and threw the letter in. Setting the pile of mail down on the edge of the table, she sighed. “Sorry, gonna head to bed early.”

“Hey,” Joanna said as May grabbed her plate. “Cut the bullshit, what’s up?”

“Nothing!” she damn near shouted, regretting doing so.

Fiona, the playful banter gone from her lips, glanced at the trash can. As if she could hide something from her team—her family.

“Don’t worry about it,” May breathed. “It’s nothing.”

And she retreated to her room.

Three things happened as the door closed. One, Fiona immediately went to the trash. Two, Joanna got up to follow May. And three, Robyn held out an arm to stop Joanna. “Wait,” she cautioned. “Let’s see what it is.”

Fiona smoothed the crinkles out of the paper, May having crumpled it. She squinted. “Why are we getting someone else’s mail? Who is…?” Then she paused. “Oh.”

“Oh?” Robyn echoed.

“Oh,” Fiona repeated. She looked queasy.

Joanna plucked the letter out of her hand and stared at the name on it. “Yeah, ‘oh’ fits.” She looked over at May’s room.

“Should we open it?” Fiona asked.

Robyn finally stood up, taking the letter. There, on the front as plain as day, was a name May had never told them. “Oh,” she said.

They were quiet for a moment. Robyn checked the return address. “It’s from her family.”

“No wonder she got mad,” Joanna growled.

May wasn’t exactly open about what had happened before meeting them. Hell, they’d met May at a homeless shelter, an inch from death. So when she’d told them she didn’t want to talk about it, they respected that. Everyone had skeletons in their closet.

But that didn’t stop bits and pieces slipping through the cracks of the wall May had put up between her and who she had been. Offhand comments without thinking, stories May shared, things added up.

And the one thing the three knew without a doubt was that they _hated_ May’s parents. Joanna had gone off one night, drunk, about just how much she’d beat the shit out of them. May had seemed pleased, even if she quickly moved the conversation elsewhere.

“Should we…” Fiona said quietly, “go talk to her?”

“I’ll go,” Robyn said. “We’d probably overwhelm her if we all went.”

Now May, during all this, sat on her bed with head in her hands. She wiped away the few tears that passed her mask.

“Fuck,” she muttered. She was past this, it was supposed to be done! Her dad didn’t know where she was (or hadn’t), that was supposed to be the end of it.

But of course it couldn’t be that easy. That damn last name of hers had to haunt her as much as the first. _Not my name,_ she pled with herself. _That name was never_ me.

Not that the law gave a shit about that. Or her parents. One of those she expected better from.

It was bad enough she had to deal with a huntress license with the wrong name on it, now she had this to deal with?

There was a knock on the door.

“What?” she called out, voice low and gravely. A spike of dysphoria simmered in her stomach and she tried to ignore it.

“Can I come in?” Robyn asked.

May swore softly, rubbing her eyes free of any more tears. She wouldn’t cry in front of Robyn. A few seconds later, she said, “Sure.”

To her relief, it was just Robyn. One person she could deal with far better than three. The door shut behind her leader.

May looked at the floor and felt Robyn sit down next to her rather than see it.

“You never told us,” began Robyn.

“What, that fucking name?” May snapped. She looked at Robyn.

Hurt flashed across Robyn’s face for the briefest of moments. “No, of course not. We _know_ your name, May. Your name, not any other. I meant that you never told us your parents might look for you.”

“Sorry,” May muttered, hand running through her hair, taking comfort in its length. “For snapping. And yeah, I mean, my parents aren’t high on my list of things to talk about.”

Robyn wrapped her arms around May, holding her. She tensed, wary of the semblance, then relax and trusted her. It was more affection than had ever been showed to her as a child. Or a teenager. Well, any time before being quite literally thrown out of the Marigold Estate.

“How did they find you?” Robyn asked eventually. “At least, I assume you aren’t trying to be found by them.”

May scowled. “They’ve got my legal name, don’t they? And money. Not all that surprised.”

“What do you mean?” Robyn blinked.

“Legal name is still the same as it was before,” she ground out, flash of anger passing through her limbs. She trembled, not with fear, but rage.

“I thought…” Robyn trailed off.

May laughed without a smile. “What, you thought it was easy to change your name? Trust me, I’ve looked into it. That shit isn’t easy. Figured I was fine without that step down here on Mantle, but fuck me I guess.”

Robyn didn’t understand. “If it’s money, I’m sure we have enough.”

“Nope.” She popped the ‘p’. “Gotta have birth documents, stuff to prove you’re a citizen of Atlas or Mantle and to prove I’m me. And that stuff is sitting pretty in my parents’ house in a safe. Like I said, fuck me.”

“Your semblance, you could just steal them?” Robyn suggested.

May tensed, Robyn could feel how rigid she’d gone as she still held her. “I didn’t exactly have a good parting with them.”

Her blood went cold as she remembered how black and blue May had been in the shelter. “Is that why—“

“I don’t want to talk about it,” May cut in, tone harsh.

“Sorry,” Robyn said, holding May a little tighter.

May nodded without looking at her. “It’s fine, just not something I want to think about. Ever again.”

Pieces fell into place about May. How she hadn’t liked being touched at first. How quiet she’d been. How she hadn’t disagreed with any of them if she could help it.

Robyn, to put it lightly, became _furious._

How dare someone hurt May— _her_ May—as if she were some unimportant thing to not care about.

“Is it okay to tell the others?” she asked quietly.

“Sure,” May muttered. “Then can we just forget this ever happened? I just want to go back to being May.”

“You’ve always been May,” Robyn said.

A smile, a glimmer of the May she knew. “Thanks, Robyn.” And she leaned into the woman, relaxing a bit.

*

One day of May being far too quiet for any of their comforts later, Robyn slid into the chair across from May.

“So,” she said, looking across the dinner table at May. The other two were hovering nearby. They clearly knew what Robyn wanted and were waiting to see how May would react.

May blinked and sighed. “Yeah?” her voice rumbled, lower than she liked.

“So I know I’m trying to run for public office,” Robyn said, a glimmer in her eye. “And that usually goes hand in hand with, you know, not committing crimes.”

May’s eyes narrowed.

“So I’ve committed a crime,” Robyn said.

She closed her eyes slowly and counted back from five. Breathing deeply, she said, “Robyn, as your campaign manager, I _really_ wish you would consult me on something like this beforehand.”

Robyn shrugged and looked entirely unbothered. “You would have talked me out of it—“

“Exactly!”

“—and since it’s for your benefit, I wasn’t going to stand for that.”

She slid an envelope over the table. May scowled and picked it up, opening it. She unfolded the paper within.

And stopped.

“Sorry for writing that name,” Robyn whispered gently.

Inside the envelope was her birth certificate, one that couldn’t possibly be in her hands.

“This is…you stole this?” May asked, jaw dropping.

“Nope, it’s a forgery,” Robyn said, a fleck of pride entering her voice. “Even a goodie-two-shoes like me knows a few nefarious types.”

May blinked, looking at that name that was never hers written in Robyn’s neat penmanship. A pulse of revulsion thrummed through her body before calming.

Joanna stepped forward. “We also may have bribed a judge to process your case ahead of others.”

“That’s…”

“This afternoon,” Fiona finished for May. “Like, two hours from now.”

May stood up, her mouth moving and no words coming out. She didn’t know what to say. “You three…”

“You can thank us later,” Robyn smirked, reclining in the chair self-satisfied. “In terms of payment, I think that look on your face is all we needed. Maybe a kiss in my case.”

“How did you bribe a judge?” May said, finally processing that bit of information. “We’re broke. And Robyn, you can’t just go doing stuff like this when you’re running for office.”

“Right,” Joanna said. “That’s why I did that part. And don’t you worry about what it cost.”

“But Joanna—“

“But nothing,” Fiona said with a smile. “Group hug!”

Whatever May was about to say was cut off by the three women in her life hugging her. It was disgustingly sappy and May never wanted the moment to end.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“You’re our May,” Robyn replied, the other two nodding. “We’re always going to help you.”

May tried to stop herself from crying, she really did, and she really failed.

*

“…congratulations, May Marigold,” the judge said with a light smile before gathering up his things.

May sat completely still, afraid to wake up from the dream she was no doubt in. That is, until Robyn put a hand on her shoulder and asked, “How does it feel?”

She exhaled, tension she’d carried the past two hours leaving as well as so much she hadn’t know she carried. Her body craved sleep, exhaustion filling every inch of her.

And yet, euphoria.

“Good,” she said. May looked at the three people who had been her witnesses. She’d only needed two, but they all insisted on being part of it. She smiled, and it was radiant.

Robyn grabbed her hand and squeezed it. She tugged May out of her chair and pulled her out of the courtroom. May barely noticed Joanna wave at the judge and didn’t see the man roll his eyes.

“Now,” Robyn said. “I want you to know your parents are never going to be able to hurt you when you’re with us.” Joanna cracked her knuckles and Fiona nodded emphatically.

May laughed, the kind someone laughed who just couldn’t fathom what had happened. “I believe you,” she said.

And she did.

**Author's Note:**

> I get deadnamed and misgendered by my parents a lot. They’re supportive and have helped me out more than I expected, but they don’t really understand how painful deadnaming is. So I wrote this to cope on a bad day, that's why it isn't a good fic lol I just needed to get it out.
> 
> Shoutout to all the great May fics I've been devouring in the past week :3


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